PaxEast Report 2014 – Pre-Pax Shenanigans Part. 1

One of the biggest pros to being a local in a host city (or earlybird) for PAX is the ability to partake in all the great pre-expo events put on by the community – and boy do they know how to kick things off right!

There’s a plethora of pre-PAX events to go to, more than an attendee can reasonably partake in, that gives the opportunity for old friends to reunite or newcomers to meet new people.

Down side to being a local is justifying taking the entire week off – but many events are still post work hours and can be enjoyed regardless.

I kicked off my expo week Tuesday night at the annual Pre-PAX gaming night at JJ Foley’s. The meet-up is also a monthly venture for local PAXers to keep up with each other, but the one before a convention is always a pleasure – far more active and populated!

This year the crowd was a bit smaller than previous, but it was still a good time. I got to play two awesome new games – Tsuro and Buffalo – and an old favorite in Qwirkle.

The festivities continued Weds night with the annual Pig Roast at Citizen Public House. While expensive, the roast is an AWESOME experience to share with friends – more food than you can even imagine and a good time with out-of-towners stopping by to catch up.

Tonight is a big one, as Thursday is a popular travel day for attendees to come in and get settled and adventure out. Some companies will be having some pre-PAX parties and tonight is also the ever-popular Pokemon Pub-Crawl, in which decorated and drunk geeks effectively take over and terrorize locals for a few hours. I’ll be hitting up the Curse Party as well as the Crawl tonight! Look forward to some crazy photos!